Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5010LCD 3D 1080p Projector

Glasses not included. While the Home Cinema 3010 included two pairs of 3D glasses in the purchase price, the 5010 includes none. If you and your spouse would like to watch 3D movies on your new projector, you'll need to plonk down an additional $198 for two pairs of Epson 3D glasses. Alternately, Epson's glasses follow the M-3Di standard, so you can use any glasses that conform to this standard. Participating companies include Panasonic, XpanD, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, SIM2, and Viewsonic -- and Epson, of course. Just make sure to confirm that whatever glasses you want to purchase specifically reference M-3Di compatibility, as the standard is still relatively new.

Manual zoom and focus. The 5010 has all manual adjustments, including zoom, focus, and lens shift. Other competing models feature powered zoom and focus, if not lens shift. The 5010 does not have anamorphic lens support, and zooming the lens back and forth on a 2.4:1 screen is one way to show cinemascope movies in their native aspect ratio. Projectors with powered zoom lenses allow you to do this without leaving your seat.

Fan noise. The Home Cinema 5010 is quiet in Eco lamp mode, with fan noise never rising above the level of a hushed whisper. However, the lamp's full power setting causes a sharp increase in fan noise. In small rooms, or installations where the projector is near the audience, this increased fan noise might require you to increase sound volume in compensation.

3D Limitations. When viewing 3D content, the projector switches to one of two image modes, 3D Dynamic and 3D Cinema. These modes have their own color calibrations which do not reflect the settings you input for their 2D counterparts. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since 3D content is often color-balanced differently. However, both modes also disallow the use of frame interpolation and the projector's auto iris.